A test designed to be unwinnable, so that what it measures is conduct under certain defeat rather than competence.
From Star Trek II, 1982. The interesting version is Kirk's: he reprogrammed the simulation, and whether that is cheating or the correct answer is the actual question the scenario poses.
In practice
- An assessment centre exercise designed with no winning path shows the panel who blames colleagues and who keeps the team working.
- A crisis simulation with an unavoidable loss reveals which manager escalates honestly and which conceals until the end.
- Standing
- Often invoked with the opposite lesson: that the right move is changing the terms of the test.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Organizations & Bureaucracy
- Essay
- The folklore of office life